Can only upgrade memory on an old system...

[zer]

Hi everyone! I have a AMD Phenom X4 965 BE system, with a GTX275 card and 2*2GB DDR2 800Mhz Ram running with Windows 7 64bit. Fairly old but, due to budjet reasons, cannot upgrade for now at least
A friend offered to give me 2 more 2Gb DDR2 sticks he doesn't use, so that i'll have 8Gb DDR2 Ram.Considering the rest of my system i mentioned above do you see any point? Will i notice any difference?
Many thanks
PS : Mobo is GA-MA770-UD3

 

[ShivP]

Most probably you'll see a difference, especially in games as they tend to use 6-8gb RAM (higher end games)

 

[EirePlane]

It's worth noting you'll need a 64 bit operating system before it will be able to access the additional RAM

 

[ExRayTed]

Unlikely to see much difference in games. However, free is always good so pointless not adding it in. It'll be interesting to see.

 

[Admetos]

The extra memory will smooth out the Windows experience, definitively worth installing.

 

[varkanoid]

Most probably you'll see a difference, especially in games as they tend to use 6-8gb RAM (higher end games)

Thats not quite true you only need more than 4gb if you are doing heavy photo or video work. Games even "higher end games" whatever that might be dont really take advantage. Plus as said before if you dont have Windows 64 bit then you will not benefit with more than 4gb anyway.

 

[zer]

Thats not quite true you only need more than 4gb if you are doing heavy photo or video work. Games even "higher end games" whatever that might be dont really take advantage. Plus as said before if you dont have Windows 64 bit then you will not benefit with more than 4gb anyway.

Windows 7 64 bit, so that is covered

In which area do you expect improovement guys? Texture quality? Higher resolutions? (i game at 1680*1050). Loading times? I mean, which area is more memory-depended?

Also, does it matter that it's not DDR3???

 

[GefGz]

Thats not quite true you only need more than 4gb if you are doing heavy photo or video work. Games even "higher end games" whatever that might be dont really take advantage. Plus as said before if you dont have Windows 64 bit then you will not benefit with more than 4gb anyway.

Please don't spread rumours that definitely aren't true, with 4GB of RAM you can definitely use the surplus left over from your OS simply on a game like Battlefield.

People undervalue RAM for some reason, it's cheap, and the caching properties speed up usage of multiple applications when multi-tasking, 8GB I personally feel is standard in PC's these days.

 

[GefGz]

Also, does it matter that it's not DDR3???

They aren't slot compatible, I'm pretty suprised you've got a AM2+ mobo that is still DDR2..


TLR - No it won't fit in your mobo, and DDR2 sticks are naturally expensive due to the fact no one manufactures them anymore.

 

[ShivP]

DDR3 is simply a more efficient, faster DDR2 - you can get DDR2 up to speeds of something like 1033, which is almost at DDR3 speeds, of course DDR2 is getting expensive now - not much left, no one manufacturing it etc. You'll definitely see a difference, I upgraded my old P5NE-SLI system from 4gb DDR2 to 6gb DDR2 and I noticed a difference right-away, just take it anyway, it's not being used and it's free!